GitLab CI — CI/CD Integrated in the Repository

Jenkins is powerful, but for smaller projects it is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. GitLab CI is part of GitLab — a CI/CD pipeline defined in .gitlab-ci.yml directly in the repository. No external server, no Jenkins administration.

.gitlab-ci.yml¶

stages:
  - build
  - test
  - deploy

build:
  stage: build
  image: maven:3.3-jdk-8
  script:
    - mvn compile
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - target/

test:
  stage: test
  image: maven:3.3-jdk-8
  script:
    - mvn test
  artifacts:
    reports:
      junit: target/surefire-reports/*.xml

deploy_staging:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - ./deploy.sh staging
  only:
    - develop
  environment:
    name: staging

GitLab Runners¶

A runner is an agent that executes jobs. Shared runners (GitLab.com provides them for free) or your own runners. Docker executor — each job in a clean container. Registering a runner takes a single command.

GitLab CI vs. Jenkins¶

GitLab CI: Simplicity, integration with GitLab (merge requests, environments), zero maintenance for hosted GitLab. Jenkins: More flexible, more plugins, better for complex enterprise pipelines. Both have their place — GitLab CI for smaller projects, Jenkins for large enterprise setups.

CI/CD for Every Project¶

GitLab CI lowers the barrier for CI/CD. Every project should have an automatic build and tests — GitLab CI makes that trivial.